It’s been over two years since ChatGPT made its debut, prompting a wave of email applications to incorporate AI-driven writing and summarization features. Many of these apps also introduced AI-enhanced search capabilities, allowing users to navigate their inboxes with ease. Now, Superhuman is leveraging AI to address one of the major challenges associated with email: organization.
Google was a pioneer in categorizing emails with its Inbox email client, but it discontinued the service in 2019. Since then, various email clients, including Gmail’s native one, have attempted to mimic this functionality, achieving varying degrees of success.
Superhuman is now rolling out its Auto Label feature, which automatically sorts emails into categories such as marketing, pitch, social, and news. Users can also create custom labels by writing their own prompts. The focus of the email client remains on helping users get through their inboxes swiftly, with the option to auto-archive specific labels if users decide they want to ignore emails from those categories.
“Over the past year, one of the primary concerns we’ve heard from our users is the growing number of cold emails that are either marketing-related or spam. They questioned why Superhuman wasn’t removing these emails. Initially, we depended on the spam filters from Gmail and Outlook, but they weren’t delivering satisfactory results. Consequently, we took the initiative to improve our classification system with this new labeling feature,” shared Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra in a conversation with TechCrunch.
A limitation at the time of the Auto Labels feature’s launch is that users cannot simply edit the prompts used to create categories. If the current prompt fails to filter emails effectively, users must create an entirely new prompt.
The application allows users to establish a Split Inbox based on custom filters, such as emails that match specific subjects or originate from particular domains. Additionally, users can create a new Split Inbox using existing filters along with customer-specific criteria.
Superhuman is also improving its reminder functionality. Users have always been able to snooze emails for later review, but now, if replies are expected from certain emails, the app will automatically bring them back to the forefront after a set time—this timeframe can be adjusted through the settings—if no response is received. Accompanying this feature is a new AI-driven auto-draft option that creates follow-ups in the user’s voice while maintaining the context and tone of the conversation. This acts as a “gentle nudge” for recipients.
According to Vohra, the forthcoming development for Superhuman involves integrating various knowledge bases that represent users, including their websites and Wikipedia entries. The application currently has access to users’ schedules via their calendars.
With this context at hand, Superhuman’s AI could one day auto-draft responses to incoming emails that require a reply and potentially even send some replies automatically if users are comfortable. For instance, it might automatically respond to a meeting request by suggesting a potential time.
Superhuman is also planning to introduce IFTTT-style (If This Then That) workflows paired with prompts. For example, if an email related to recruitment comes in, users could set up a template for a response through AI prompting and even forward the email to the recruitment department if certain conditions are met.
While the prospect of an email client that automatically responds to messages is still far off, the challenge of categorization stands as a pressing issue that can be tackled today. The upcoming labeling feature seems promising—as long as it successfully sorts emails into their respective categories.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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